Chamber honors business, community leaders

Michael Buettner

Some 260 business and community leaders gathered last week to honor outstanding contributions to Chesterfield’s economy and quality of life.

Among the top awards presented at the Chesterfield Chamber of Commerce’s annual gala on Jan. 15 at the Double- Tree by Hilton, Howard Deskin of Impression Marketing was named Member of the Year, James Richardson of the Regus Group was named ambassador of the year, Martin’s Food Markets was selected as Large Business of the Year and Titan Auto & Tire was chosen as Small Business of the Year.

Named as DuPont Community Heroes were Tara Brunyansky, a teacher at James River High School who was selected as this year’s Chesterfield County and Region 1 Teacher of the Year; Firefighter Chip Johnson; and police corporal and detective Joseph W. Partin Jr.

Police are warning county residents to beware of a scam involving phony unpaid bills and prepaid money cards.

According to police, one victim received a phone call on Jan. 8 from unknown suspects claiming to work for the Internal Revenue Service. The suspects claimed the victim owed several thousand dollars to the IRS and would be arrested if she did not pay. They told her to buy multiple prepaid money cards to pay off the amount she supposedly owed. The victim sent the suspects several thousand dollars. After doing so, she found out the calls were a scam and alerted police.

The same day, an unknown suspect called another victim and claimed to work for Dominion Virginia Power. The suspect claimed the victim’s account was overdue and a payment must be made immediately or the victim’s power would be shut off. The suspect told the victim to send the payment using a prepaid money card. The victim sent the suspect several hundred dollars. Later, he called Dominion and learned that he had been scammed.

Police remind residents that utility companies and government agencies will not ask that fines or bills be paid in this manner. For more information from the IRS and Dominion Virginia Power on how to avoid such scams, visit irs.gov/uac/Tax-Scams-Consumer-Alerts or dom.com/scams.

If you receive a call of this type, do not send the caller money or call any numbers provided by the caller. Instead, try to capture the number they are calling from and call police.

The incidents are still under investigation. Anyone who has information is asked to call the Chesterfield County Police Department at 748-1251 or Crime Solvers at 748-0660, or visit crimesolvers.net.